I think fartherif you have that luxury is better due to the smells and dust (which is dried chicken poo). We are about 75 feet at least and since we are doing some free ranging during the day when we are home, it also keeps the poo away from our house.

Feel free to post a pic of your yard/set up so folks can help you further.

We put ours 450 feet away from the house and I think that is way too far. The walk is nice during good weather but will be cold this winter. Also, the cost to run electricity that far would cost me $550 or more. So now I have no elec. in the building.

We can do 75' with 2 site choices. One in the woods and the other is out in the open.
The woodland site would be out of our view and the open site would be easily view monitored but not shaded. Our property is isolated so neighbors not a concern.
The dried poo sounds like it could become wind born, right?

Sorry, no camera for pics, puppy knocked it off the bed and it's broken.

I'm in Ohio too. Amen on the heat but I vote for putting it out in the open. Just properly ventilate the coop and I think it will be ok. The woods makes it easier for varmints to sneak around without you being able to see what is going on. Several years ago I had chickens in my barn in the edge of the woods 250' from the house. Varmints were a real problem. I'm currently building a new coop 75' from my back door and mostly in the open although it is under some pine trees. Also I want to be able to watch my birds from my deck.

Quote:Two questions: Did you bury the wire? And, what gauge of wire did you use? They told me at Lowes to buy at least a 10 gauge because I want to run a heater on it in the winter. The longer the cord the harder it pulls. ?? (one more ?... are you using a heater or what are you running?)

Hello. I buried the wire with my dads help. It was 12-2 underground wire. Whatever type of wire you use outside should be about 12-2 and should be approved for under-ground use. I ran electric cause my chickens were still a little bit small so me and my dad installed an outlet box out in the coop so i can have two things going at once. Right now I have a 10 inch box fan hooked up right now so it stays cool in the coop. Every night I still have the red bulb on but I was planning on not turning it on tonight to see how they react.